J&K: Gupkar Alliance Leaders Allege Result Manipulation After Setback in DDC Polls

Srinagar: The former chief minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday alleged that senior officers from the administration and police are tinkering with the results of election for District Development Council (DDC) chairman position.

Mehbooba’s comments come at a time when the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) has lost key constituencies of Srinagar, Kupwara and Shopian in the ongoing DDC chairmanship contest.

“Disgusting that senior officers in admin & police have taken it upon themselves to violate the mandate of people. By scrapping Article 370, BJP had already murdered insaniyat & Kashmiriyat. Now by manipulating DDC results, they’ve put the final nail in the coffin of Jamhuriyat,” Mehbooba wrote on Twitter.

The DDC chairmanship of Kupwara was won by Sajad Lone-led Jammu Kashmir People’s Conference (JKPC), a former constituent of PAGD that pulled out of the alliance earlier in January. He accused the PAGD of fielding proxy candidates against its own members, which dealt a severe blow to the unity of mainstream political parties in the Valley. The parties had formed the alliance in October last year to fight for the restoration of pre-August 5 position of Jammu and Kashmir when it was a state with ‘special status’ guaranteed under Article 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution.

Two months after the PAGD fought on a seat-sharing basis in the DDC elections – a first major political exercise held in November and December after the revocation of Article 370 – the alliance is dwindling. The fissures that developed during the DDC polls are becoming more apparent as the alliance loses its grip on the ground.

Like Mehbooba Mufti, the National Conference party too condemned the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) earlier on Sunday and alleged that the party is resorting to “illicit means to capture power in DDC elections.”

The party spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar said that the administration was playing partisan, which has raised questions on the partiality of the entire process.

“The rampant instances of defection, and crossovers using coercion, intimidation and bullying post DDC elections in Shopian, Srinagar, Budgam and elsewhere in Jammu and Kashmir is a telling indictment of the BJP’s brand of politics. The BJP is wittingly helping political impropriety and opportunism take roots. This, I believe is not compatible with the country’s democratic moorings and certainly not in greater interests of a region like that of ours,” he said.

The National Conference (NC) later alleged that the district administration of Kupwara flouted norms and engineered the outcome in the frontier district. The party’s district president Qaisar Jamsheed Lone said the elections were adjourned due to the lack of perquisite quorum. “Our DDC members left the venue following which the elections for the DDC chairperson and deputy chairperson were then held in veil of secrecy much later after our DDC members had left the venue,” he said.

Finally, Irfan Panditpuri of the JKPC was elected as chairperson after out of the total 13 DDC members, only nine members participated in the election meeting while the remaining four members from the PAGD remained absent from the meeting.

JKPC’s leader Bashir Dar, however, said Lone should accept defeat “sportingly” while acknowledging that he shares the concerns of “horse trading”.

"We are under orders not to issue statements and I am only reacting to what Mr Qaiser said. Otherwise, I could tell my people who they had aligned with and how the proposed alliance broke because of differences in who gets what post,” Dar said.

The PAGD parties, which emerged as the alliance with the highest seats in the polls with a majority from Kashmir valley, lost Srinagar – an NC bastion -- to Altaf Bukhari-led Apni Party. Bukhari’s party, which the alliance parties termed as a “B-team” of the BJP in the region, meanwhile, is emerging as a key political player owing to its gains due to the gaffes within the PAGD.